Saturday, Jun. 06, 2009

Don't let 'blight' lose its meaning

Eckert's Inc. in Belleville is among the fortunate few businesses in our nation that hasn't been hurt by the recession. In fact, business is so good that the company is planning a $5 million expansion. That's great news, and we're happy the city is offering its support.

What's troubling is that part of that support is to declare Eckert's "blighted" to make it a candidate for tax increment financing.

It's embarrassing that city leaders would play that fast and loose with the language, although it wouldn't be the first time. The sites for the Shoppes at St. Clair in Fairview Heights, a proposed office complex next to the Regency Park Conference Center in O'Fallon and the Wal-Mart and Target shopping centers in Belleville were all blighted, wink, wink.

Beyond that designation is a concern that Belleville is overly extended itself with TIF.

The city has 19 TIF districts, more than any city except Chicago. That results in higher property taxes for all residents. Belleville's total tax base last year was $615,914,839, but $187,390,827 had to be excluded when setting tax rates because of the TIFs. Total city property taxes last year were $7,403,296 -- $5,149,359 for city government needs and the other $2.35 million set aside for TIF.

Belleville is also talking about creating a business district for Eckerts, with an additional 1-cent sales tax collected and used to help pay for the expansion. That's the kind of city support that can be justified. But Eckert's clearly is not what lawmakers had in mind when they created TIFs.